Definition
Web characteristics are properties related to collections of documents accessible via the World Wide Web. There are vast numbers of properties that can be characterized. Some examples include the number of words in a document, the length of a document in bytes, the language a document is authored in, the mime-type of a document, properties of the URL that indentifies a document, HTML tags used to author a document, and the hyperlink structure created by the collection of documents.
As in the physical world, the process of change that the web continually undergoes is identified as web evolution. The web is a tremendously dynamic place, with new users, servers, and pages entering and leaving the system continuously, which causes the web to change very rapidly. Web evolution encompasses changes in all web characteristics, as defined above.
Historical Background
As early as 1994, researchers were interested in studying characteristics of the World Wide Web. As documented by...
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Fetterly, D. (2009). Web Characteristics and Evolution. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_456
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_456
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